Kyrie Irving Ruled Out For Playoffs

Kyrie Irving will miss the remainder of the 2018 season in the aftermath of surgery on his left knee. It was originally expected for Kyrie to miss just 3-6 weeks after a minor procedure, but he has officially been ruled out for the playoffs. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN first reported this in a classic Woj Bomb on twitter. The Celtics are currently 2nd in the Eastern Conference right now, 3 games back from the Raptors. Kyrie was averaging 24.4 PPG, 5.1 APG and 3.8 RPG for the Celtics this season.

Terry Rozier has stepped up this year for the Celtics, in a bigger way than anyone expected. In his third season for the C’s, Rozier has averaged 11.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 2.8 APG. He also recorded a triple double in his first career start earlier this year. The dude can play. And he will be a main reason why even without Kyrie in the lineup, the Celtics should still win their first round series in the playoffs. The loss of Kyrie is a huge blow, especially since the Celtics have been so good this season. But the play of their young studs has been a welcomed sight for Boston. With Gordon Hayward going down in the first game this season, that allowed Jayson Tatum to come into his own in his rookie year. Tatum is averaging 13.9 PPG and 5.1 RPG and has started all 78 games for the C’s this year.

Obviously the loss of Gordon Hayward at the very beginning of the season hurt the Celtics championship hopes, but the Celtics came out on fire and proved they could win without him. However, now with the loss of Kyrie as well, I think at this point we just have to hope the Celtics don’t get bounced in the first round. Devastating loss for the Celtics as they get ready to begin the postseason.

Rozier has been awesome all year, and now without Kyrie, Brad Stevens will look for Rozier to be the floor general. But damn, the loss of Kyrie definitely drains a lot of hope from the Celtics faithful. For a team that was looking like they could contend with the Cavs come playoff time and run the East, it’s not looking that way for the Celtics anymore. Stevens has a lot of work to do to decide how his rotation is going to look for the playoffs without Kyrie, but in Brad we trust. The Kyrie news is just disappointing and definitely put a damper on my day.